Jesus through the Penn

Main Menu

God Calls People to Perfect Praise

Let’s dive right into our key text coming out of Proverbs 27:21 (KJV). The Word of the Lord reads:

21 As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.

This may remind you a lot of a previous devotional that we shared together, because it also spoke of the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold. The difference is that the last part of that verse referenced the Lord as being the purifier of hearts. This passage of scripture mirrors the first but instead references man as the perfecter of praise.

To gain a better understanding of what it means for a person to perfect his or her praise, let us take deeper look into the analogy. Silver and gold are very valuable, but before they reach their most pleasurable state, they come out of the ground raw — rough, dirty, and devoid of form. The fining pot and the furnace, however, perfect silver and gold by purging them of their impurities. The Word of God is telling us that praise operates the same way. The Bible says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Hence, praise in and of itself is good, but I dare say the praise of man ought to be better than that of a bird or a dog. Just like the fining pot and the furnace perfect silver and gold by bringing them out of their raw state, man must perfect praise. Let us not just haphazardly praise the Lord when prompted by a preacher or a choir. May we give the Lord pure unadulterated praise from our hearts and not mechanical “hallelujah”s from our heads. Let us praise our Heavenly Father not only verbally but also through our actions by living a life according to His Word.